My wife is a huge fan of the Holiday Movies shown on the Lifetime and Hallmark Networks. The "A" typical Christmas love story, chick heavy genre of Single Mom and Sir Galahad wandering into town and sweeping the woman off her feet. This movie does a 180 degree turn in a different direction. I've seen most of the Scrooge movies made with Alistar Sims as the benchmark for excellence in that particular role. This one is the extreme antithesis of that classic movie. Even the animated Mister Magoo rates much higher on the Scrooge movie charts over this abomination of that Dicken's tale. Cycely Tyson's work in TV and movies to this point is regarded as respectable as a talented and versatile actor. This production is not Miss Jane Pittman. More like Miss handled Christmas story. Some might say by watching this movie that it borders on being racist. The only positive aspect of this wannabee movie is the acting of Katherine Hellman as Maude Marley. Slim pickings that year in dramas on Television as this movie was nominated for the Online & Television Association award. Great casting of the Crachit children (The Greenblatt Kids)? I wish I was around for the re-write with John Corty and the final teleplay with John McGreevy I would have suggested the following. Put in a laugh track. And second, have the final scene where Samuel Jackson comes to her home with pistil in hand quoting Ezekiel 25.17. I totally lost my composure when you see Ebenita ironing greenbacks during the late hours. I explain to people that this movie exists but they think I'm putting them on.

The premise of an African-American female Scrooge in the modern, struggling city was inspired, but nothing else in this film is. Here, Ms. Scrooge is a miserly banker who takes advantage of the employees and customers in the largely poor and black neighborhood it inhabits. There is no doubt about the good intentions of the people involved. Part of the problem is that story's roots don't translate well into the urban setting of this film, and the script fails to make the update work. Also, the constant message about sharing and giving is repeated so endlessly, the audience becomes tired of it well before the movie reaches its familiar end. This is a message film that doesn't know when to quit. In the title role, the talented Cicely Tyson gives an overly uptight performance, and at times lines are difficult to understand. The Charles Dickens novel has been adapted so many times, it's a struggle to adapt it in a way that makes it fresh and relevant, in spite of its very relevant message.

...but this has to be the worst A Christmas Carol adaptation of all time. And that takes some doing, what with the likes of various Lifetime efforts. Don't get me wrong--I have nothing against Cicely Tyson. I've enjoyed her tremendously in other roles (look at Sipsey in Fried Green Tomatoes, for example). But the script gives her no option but to chew the scenery. And chew it she does, with all the enthusiasm of Tiny Tim tying into a Christmas goose.Give me the classics anytime: Alastair Sim, 1951. With the exception maybe of Scrooged, all the others are just over-the-top efforts to grasp the past, present, or future Spirit of Christmas.

It amazes me how many ways a simple story like Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" can be interpreted. We have the pleasure of watching Cicely Tyson (Idlewild, A Lesson Before Dying) in another strong role.John Korty, who directed Ms. Tyson in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, again directs her as Ms. Ebenita Scrooge. Veteran writer John McGreevey interprets the familiar tale.Katherine Helmond ("Soap", "Whose the Boss") was funny as Marley, and Michael Beach ("Third Watch", Short Cuts) was super as her nephew.It was a different twist on a familiar story, told from an African-American perspective, and it really warmed the heart.Of course, you all know how it ends.